AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Training camp had barely started when Texas athletics started promoting video of a practice catch by Cam Coleman.
The No. 5 Longhorns ' new transfer wide receiver leaped high, twisted
his body and stuck out his left hand to snag a wobbly throw that drifted well behind him, before tucking it and making a move around a defender.
It was just practice, but the catch lit up Longhorns fans, as well as his teammates and coaches, when the clip went viral. And it highlighted everything Texas hopes to get out of Coleman, its biggest haul out of the transfer portal this season.
“That was a crazy catch, man,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “I don’t know. I tried to check his gloves, I thought it was the old school Stickum on there.”
Coleman was a five-star recruit coming out of high school. In his two years at Auburn, he caught 93 passes for 1,306 yards and 13 touchdowns.
But after two losing season, the transfer portal beckoned. Coleman was immediately rated one of the top players, and the top receiver, on the market.
He visited Alabama, Texas Tech and Texas A&M. It was a dinner at Texas with quarterback Arch Manning and receiver Ryan Wingo that helped seal the deal for the Longhorns.
It could not have been a difficult pitch.
Texas had made the College Football Playoff in 2023 and 2024 and barely missed out last year after starting the season No. 1. Manning is one of the top quarterbacks in the country and Coleman gets to partner with Wingo in an explosive offense.
“They were just telling me what we could do together,” Coleman said.
Manning clearly wanted Coleman, or someone like him, in the Texas arsenal. He reportedly took less money from Texas' revenue sharing so Sarkisian could use it to lure players like the star receiver.
“He’s a really good athlete, a freak athlete," Manning said of Coleman. "But he’s also a really good person and a very hard worker.”
Over the summer, Manning took the group of Texas receivers on a trip to New Orleans for some bonding time in Manning's hometown with some informal throwing sessions at Tulane. The group appeared to gel. Arch Manning's father, Cooper, posted a photo on social media of him driving the receivers around town with a note that “Arch is in the trunk.”
Coleman raved about the visit and noted the food in New Orleans. But there were parts of the Big Easy that he found confusing.
“If we’re below sea level, how come we’re not flooded?” Coleman said.
Coleman joins an already loaded group of Texas wide receiver with Wingo, Emmett Mosely V, and standout freshman Jermaine Bishop Jr..
Texas hopes adding Coleman will be similar to 2023 when Adonai Mitchell transfer from Georgia. He and Xavier Worthy were big factors in Texas winning the Big 12 and making the playoff. Worthy was drafted in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft. Mitchell in the second.
Coleman and Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith, another top receiver and NFL draft prospect, will face off in Austin on Sept. 12 in the second game of the season. Both Coleman and Smith are preseason All-Americans.
Sarkisian already compares Coleman's size (6-foot-3, 205 pounds), speed and agility to former NFL star Julio Jones, who Sarkisian coached when he was an assistant with the Atlanta Falcons.
"Julio was similar that way, that ability to engage those high-point balls the way that he does, and still be a vertical threat,” Sarkisian said. “Cam can still run. He’s not just a possession guy. He can run, and Julio was that way.”
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